GREEN-TECH
TREEBIO RANGE

GREEN-TECH is the largest supplier of tree planting materials to the industry. With over two million tree shelters in stock at any one time, customers can call for tree shelters, spirals and tree planting sundries as and when they need.

With the option of a next-day delivery service, Green-tech is renowned as the essential ‘go-to’ supplier for protecting trees. By the end of the 2019/2020 tree planting season it forecasts that it will have supplied enough tree shelters and sundry items to protect in the region of 12 million trees.

Green-tech supplies across the UK and protects trees for all manner of projects, from creation of woodlands and regeneration of quarries to planting at the side of motorways and planting in new housing developments.

The focus on reducing the amount of plastic used in landscaping remains high and Green-tech takes its environmental impact very seriously and is conscious of reducing its plastics use. Green-tech admits there is no quick fix to reducing plastic in tree planting and cost plays a big part in this, but it is actively looking at options to reduce plastic in the environment and has been researching viable alternatives over the last few years.

One of these is the new TreeBio biodegradable tree planting range, which includes spirals, pegs and mulch mats. For the 2019/2020 planting season Green-tech is expecting the range to prove especially popular amongst those landscape contractors and designers whose clients are focusing on their own green credentials.

The TreeBio range is an environmentally friendly, weed- and erosion-control range of planting essentials. The material used in its manufacture has been tested at an independent laboratory to be classified as fully compostable. It has also gained the DIN CERTO certificate. The TreeBio spiral will be attacked initially by UV degradation to start the break-up process. Biodegradable stabilisers are added to the material before the manufacturing process to stabilise the spiral sufficiently to withstand this UV degradation for 4 – 5 years in the place of use, meaning after this period it will compost down to become a soil nutrient.

For more information visit www.green-tech.co.uk

Forestry Journal:

TCS GEOTECHNICS
TECHCELL TREE ROOT PROTECTION

AN increase in urbanisation combined with the need to preserve flora has led to a rise in development in areas where the continued health of mature trees must be assured within the close vicinity of buildings and associated infrastructure. The preservation of these trees is generally ensured via Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs).

A TPO is a legal instrument put in place by a local planning authority in the United Kingdom to protect specific trees, groups of trees or woodlands in the interests of amenity. An order prohibits the cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, wilful damage and wilful destruction of trees without the local planning authority’s written consent.

Of particular note is the fact that cutting or otherwise damaging roots via excavation around them is also a restricted activity under TPOs. However, actual cutting of the tree roots is not required for the tree to suffer the ill effects of construction.

As many tree roots are found within the first metre of soil, trees see a decline in health when the areas surrounding the trees are not protected from trafficking by vehicles and plant. The trafficking not only crushes the roots but also compacts the soil around and above them, reducing the permeability to water, air and also restricting the activity of burrowing insects and other fauna, which normally maintain a nutrient-rich healthy soil structure.

Damage to feeder roots is mainly caused by compaction of soils by vehicular traffic, exchange between the roots and surrounding soils, severance of roots during site excavations, and impermeable wearing courses such as tarmacadam or concrete.

As a consequence of all of the above, so-called ‘no dig’ solutions are sought which provide a stabilised raft or stiffened layer above the root zone capable of spreading the load of trafficking vehicles and inhibiting the effects on the soil and roots below.

The Techcell cellular confinement system from TCS Geotechnics offers just such a solution. When filled with a 4mm – 20mm or 20mm – 40mm clean angular gravel, Techcell creates a permeable stable surface which distributes the loads imposed by vehicular traffic whilst allowing water, air, and nutrients to reach the tree roots, preserving the health of the tree.

The British Standards Institute BS 5837:2012 provides recommendations relating to tree care, with a view to achieving a harmonious and sustainable relationship between new construction/existing structures and their surrounding trees. Techcell not only complies with BS 5837:2012 but also with Arboriculture practice note 12 (APN12).

For more information, please contact TCS Geotechnics on 01942 218597, via email at sales@tcs-geotechnics.co.uk or visit www.tcs-geotechnics.co.uk

Forestry Journal:

RAINBOW PROFESSIONAL
BIO SPIRAL TREE GUARDS

RAINBOW Professional has now started to manufacture Bio Spiral Tree guards. Rainbow fully recognises the growing desire to reduce and even stop the use of standard plastics in forests and has been instrumental in several field trials across Europe using biomaterials for various tree and seedling protection as well as for tree-tying applications. The development of bio plasticisers and stabilisers suitable for forestry applications has resulted in Rainbow Professional pushing ahead within this area of requirement.

This has now resulted in bio polymers being suitable at the range of temperature extremes found in forests, as well as at the typical levels of UV radiation found.

The materials used in the manufacture of Rainbow Professional Bio Spiral tree guards have passed all required tests from EU Guidelines at an independent laboratory to be classified as fully compostable and have gained the DIN CERTCO certificate. The materials are classed as fully biodegradable and are made primarily of polylactic acid, a repeating chain of lactic acid which undergoes a two-stage degradation process. First the moisture and heat present in a compost pile and to a lesser degree in soil attacks the polymer chains and splits them into much smaller parts of polymer and eventually pure lactic acid. Finally, micro-organisms found in compost and soil will consume the lactic acids as nutrients as a food source for them. The result is carbon dioxide, water and humus which is a soil nutrient.

Several additives in the polymer are used for the spirals to make it meet the specification Rainbow Professional is aiming at. The main additive is a UV stabiliser, designed to totally encompass the basic PLA plant-grown polymer for the specified period of four years. During this initial four-year period the UV stabiliser, which is a biodegradable material, will continually migrate from the spiral under photodegradation. Once all the UV stabiliser has migrated from the spiral polymer, the second additive comes into effect and this has the characteristic of making the basic polymer shatter into very small particles.

The tiny fragments of the base polymer are biodegradable and will continue to degrade ultimately into CO2, water and the basic organic materials that come from the plants that make the material in the first place, on a timescale directly proportional to the ambient surrounding temperature and the type of bacteria present.

For further information, please contact Rainbow Professional on 01482 616861 or info@rainbow.eu.com

Forestry Journal:

TREE DIAGNOSTICS

TREE Diagnostics aims to provide its clients with cost-effective investigation systems to help them make better-informed decisions. Experience has taught the company that ‘if it can remove doubt, it can stop trees from being taken out’.

Tree Diagnostics has seen several new introductions to its range of non-destructive testing and investigation equipment, which help managers retain trees with defects even in high-value areas.

The introduction of the ArborElectro (electrical impendence tomography) complements the existing Arborsonic 3D sonic tomography system, by providing cross-sectional information on wood electrical resistance within standing trees. This is ideal for identifying high and low moisture content and can identify areas colonised and areas controlled by fungi or areas with elevated moisture content where a tree has responded to colonisation. This provides an insight into the areas where decay is now and where its likely to develop in the future.

The data provided by the Arborsonic and ArborElectro systems can be combined with scaled imagery of the tree’s canopy within the software to help predict the extent of loading experienced by the tree and the loads transmitted through the measured layer, providing improved levels of accuracy for tree safety assessments. This detailed information on loading, biomechanics and a safety factors is based on engineering standards such as EN1991 (Eurocode 1: Actions on structures – Part 1-4), helping users to move away from simple comparisons between the extent of hollowing versus intact stem cross sections and provide a significant improvement in safe tree retention.

In addition to assessing stems in detail, Tree Diagnostics has several systems that can test the stability of trees directly. These include traditional static load testing (tree pulling) or dynamic systems that use the power of the wind combined with detailed measurements of a tree’s movements to provide a Safety Factor based upon engineering standards.

Whether you are looking for equipment to test trees or looking to have your trees assessed, please feel free to contact Tree Diagnostics and the team will be happy to help.

If you have any questions, please contact Ian Barnes at info@treediagnostics.co.uk

Forestry Journal:

SUREGREEN
VIGILIS TREE SHELTERS

SUREGREEN has made some small but significant alterations to its range of Vigilis tree shelters over the summer, including enlarging the diameters, applying a darker, more muted green pigment and offering easily releasable cable ties as a standard fitment.

The new-season range of Vigilis tree shelters will be nested in fives and have diameters ranging from 76–110 mm, making them the largest standard diameter tubular tree shelters on the UK market. Not only does this give more room for larger-leafed tree species to grow, but it also ensures that the tubes slide apart easily without catching or sticking.

The colour of Vigilis tree shelters has been slightly tweaked in recent months, now taking on an olive hue, which is designed to blend sympathetically into a UK forest backdrop.

Finally, Suregeen has commissioned its own super-strong and fully releasable tie, which not only offers a tuck-in slot for the tail of the tie (to stop deer nibbling the tie end and tugging at the shelter), but which is also easy to release from the stake should the tree shelter need removing for beat-up purposes.

These improvements, along with the standard features, such as a flared top rim and perforated break-line which enables the shelter to split open in the event that the tree outgrows the shelter diameter before the shelter is removed, make Vigilis tree shelters an excellent and cost-effective tree protection option, which is also fully recyclable.

For trade enquiries please call Suregreen’s technical sales manager Tim Oliver on 07872 542282, or email on tim.oliver@sure-green.com